Sony and Panasonic are developing 300GB to 1TB ‘Archival Discs’ for 50 year storage

Posted Mar 11, 2014

Sony and Panasonic have partnered to build a next-generation optical disc for enterprise storage with an initial capacity of 300GB. Sony and Panasonic’s Archival Disc will have the same dimensions as Blu-ray discs and will be readable for at least 50 years.
The discs have three layers per side and is expected to arrive in 2015. The initial capacity will be expanded later to 500GB and then 1TB. The higher capacities will be achieved through signal-processing technologies including multi-level recording technology. Sony and Panasonic will market these discs separately under their own brands.

?As a type of archival media, optical discs have numerous advantages over current mainstream HDD and tape media, such as their ability to be stored for a long time while still maintaining readability,? stated a Panasonic spokesman in an interview with PCWorld. ?We hope to develop demand for archives that use optical discs.? The discs will not require a special storage environment, nor will it require air conditioning.